In Morocco eBook

How this was achieved, with the aid of the few covering
troops left him, is still almost incomprehensible.
To hold the line was virtually impossible: therefore
he pushed it forward. An anonymous writer in
L’Afrique Francaise (January, 1917) has
thus described the manoeuvre: “General
Henrys was instructed to watch for storm-signals on
the front, to stop up the cracks, to strengthen weak
points and to rectify doubtful lines. Thanks
to these operations, which kept the rebels perpetually
harassed by always forestalling their own plans, the
occupied territory was enlarged by a succession of
strongly fortified positions.” While this
was going on in the north, General Lamothe was extending
and strengthening, by means of pacific negotiations,
the influence of the Great Chiefs in the south, and
other agents of the Residency were engaged in watching
and thwarting the incessant German intrigues in the
Spanish zone.

General Lyautey is quoted as having said that “a
work-shop is worth a battalion.” This precept
he managed to put into action even during the first
dark days of 1914, and the interior development of
Morocco proceeded side by side with the strengthening
of its defenses. Germany had long foreseen what
an asset northwest Africa would be during the war;
and General Lyautey was determined to prove how right
Germany had been. He did so by getting the government,
to whom he had given nearly all his troops, to give
him in exchange an agricultural and industrial army,
or at least enough specialists to form such an army
out of the available material in the country.
For every battle fought a road was made;[A] for every
rebel fortress shelled a factory was built, a harbor
developed, or more miles of fallow land ploughed and
sown.

[Footnote A: During the first year of the war
roads were built in Morocco by German prisoners, and
it was because Germany was so thoroughly aware of
the economic value of the country, and so anxious
not to have her prestige diminished, that she immediately
protested, on the absurd plea of the unwholesomeness
of the climate, and threatened reprisals unless the
prisoners were withdrawn.]

But this economic development did not satisfy the
Resident. He wished Morocco to enlarge her commercial
relations with France and the other allied countries,
and with this object in view he organized and carried
out with brilliant success a series of exhibitions
at Casablanca, Fez and Rabat. The result of this
bold policy surpassed even its creator’s hopes.
The Moroccans of the plain are an industrious and money-loving
people, and the sight of these rapidly improvised exhibitions,
where the industrial and artistic products of France
and other European countries were shown in picturesque
buildings grouped about flower-filled gardens, fascinated
their imagination and strengthened their confidence
in the country that could find time for such an effort
in the midst of a great war. The Voice of the
Bazaar carried the report to the farthest confines
of Moghreb, and one by one the notabilities of the
different tribes arrived, with delegations from Algeria
and Tunisia. It was even said that several rebel
chiefs had submitted to the Makhzen in order not to
miss the Exhibition.